Southbury Seeks Pomperaug Bridge Construction Request for Proposals

Pomperaug Bridge Construction Request for Proposals.

Yesterday the RFP for the work on the Pomperaug River Bridge were issued, said First Selectman Ed Edelson on his Facebook page.

The expectation is that the bid will be awarded by late November and the materials can be ordered for a spring construction.

This work is 100% funded under the State’s Local Transpiration Capital Improvement Program (LOTCIP) - Southbury was one of the first to qualify under this streamlined funding program. As often happens with a large project during campaign season, there can be confusion about the process.

This came up in 2013 which lead to my writing the First Selectman Message pasted below. The major change since then is that we became aware of the LOTCIP so that there is now 100% funding.

First Selectman’s Message (October 2013)
Pomperaug River Bridge
One of the first meetings I had after being elected two years ago was with Stu Somers, an engineer who has lived and worked in Southbury for many years and a past Selectman. I asked him what issues he would identify as being in most need of attention from the view point of an engineer and a long-time member of the Road Study Committee. He didn’t hesitate to tell me that River Road needed to be addressed in some fashion – the road was built as an afterthought once plans were afoot to flood the valley to create Lake Zoar and periodically it suffers cave-ins, undermining of the roadbed and washouts. A part of this problem is the River Road Bridge over the Pomperaug River which has been designated as in “poor” condition for nearly a decade – since 2004.

Once we took office, we began reaching out to various elected officials at both the State and Federal levels and our local Council of Governments, researching all available options for funding the repair and rehabilitation of this important traffic connector. We also came to realize that this bridge has been identified as an alternate evacuation route in the event that Route 84 Rochambeau Bridge becomes impassable, and so is considered a critical piece of infrastructure.

When the Local Bridge Grant Program came to our attention, we immediately applied for the grant and were awarded $1.313 million for the rehabilitation of this bridge. The estimated total cost of the project is $4.2 million, however. As we searched for additional funding in the form of various grant programs, we were advised to complete the engineering design for the rehabilitation, as this would make the project nearly “shovel-ready” and more likely to be funded for construction.

Currently, this bridge project is being designed and permitted and will shortly be ready for the next stage – bidding for construction. We continue to explore other funding avenues and none have been precluded by the actions that have been taken to date.

Recently, some have suggested that nothing should have been done on this project until the bridge was rated less than “poor” and, therefore, qualified for Federal funding at 80% rather than the 30.8% funding from the Local Bridge Program and criticized us for moving forward with this project, the inference being that we had missed the opportunity for the increased funding.

Let me set the record straight: Nothing we have done to date on this project has precluded our qualifying for the 80% Federal funding if the bridge deteriorates enough to be eligible. What has been done is to position the Town to take advantage of available funding and put it to use for the rehabilitation and construction immediately, as the engineering design and the permitting will be completed shortly.

In fact, as far back as 1990, First Selectman Carol Herskowitz hired an engineering firm to estimate the cost of repairing the Pomperaug River Bridge – the estimate then was $250,000. In a 2004 letter to then-Congresswoman Nancy Johnson, asking for funding for the project, First Selectman Mark Cooper estimated the cost, adjusted for inflation, to be closer to $500,000. Most recently, First Selectman Bill Davis requested an appropriation for this bridge repair from then-Congressman Chris Murphy.

So the record is clear on the rehabilitation of this bridge:
• Past administrations since at least 1990 have been trying to secure funding for the project and have never succeeded.
• Within six months of taking office, we secured a Local Bridge Program Grant for $1.313 million.
• Accusations that we have forgone the possibility of getting an 80% funding grant are false – we are still eligible if the bridge deteriorates further.
• To have waited for a further decline in the structural integrity of this structure before doing anything would serve no purpose other than to “kick the can down the road” and hope that nothing serious happens to the public who travel this bridge.